New Report: NC’s Medicaid expansion pays for itself, extends coverage

Our friends here at the NC Justice Center’s Budget and Tax Center have released a report today detailing the numbers behind what happens in our state when we expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. In addition to the positive effects I’ve detailed before, the BTC report finds the following:

1. 95% of people gaining coverage under the expansion will have been previously uninsured.

2. NC will pay just 2% more on Medicaid in 2014 for the expansion than was budgeted for the current program this year, since the federal government is paying most of the expansion costs.

3. NC state and local governments pay hundreds of millions of dollars every year to help hospitals, health departments and community clinics care for all the people walking in their doors who don’t have health insurance.

4. Since most currently uninsured people coming in for care will now be covered, state and local governments will save between $1 and $2 billion over six years, easily outpacing the extras costs NC will incur in the Medicaid program.